The present invention relates to an electrospinning device and, more particularly, to a portable electrospinning device useful in providing a coat onto a verity of objects, such as wounds and the like.
Skin dressing materials used for covering skin defects are required, in general, to have skin compatibility, low or no skin irritation characteristics and sufficiently flexibility, so as to expand as the skin there underneath moves. In addition, it is desired that such skin dressing materials will serve as a barrier against infection agents, such as bacteria, so as to prevent infections.
When a skin defect is characterized by a large area of skin loss, such as in the case of a burn, the defect region is first treated by being covered with a conventional wound dressing material, as a first aid, and then via grafting of skin from other parts of the body.
Known in the art are wound dressings consisting of a thin flexible material, having an adhesive on one side, which are applied to an open wound of a patient following medical treatment of the wound. The flexible nature of the material permits the dressing to conform to virtually any contour of the patient at the location where the dressing is applied.
Typical wound dressings, however, are often applied to the patient during or after stretching of the dressing. Such stretching is known to cause discomfort to the patient and irritation to the area surrounding the wound. Moreover, on weak or damaged skin, as in the elderly, the stretching forces can cause serious skin damage. Furthermore, the flexibility of conventional skin dressing materials comes into question because these materials, once stretched, do not flexibly deform enough following the movement of the skin, which sometimes causes discomfort and/or pain.
The process of application of the wound dressing onto a wounded site often requires contact between fingers and the surface of the material during application, which contact may contaminate the surface adjacent to the wound beneath the dressing. Hence, maintaining the sterility of the dressing during the application process is an important consideration when designing a wound dressing.
It is recognized that the healing of a wound occurs as the epithelium migrates by growth generally from the periphery inward. Therefore, care is taken not to damage unnecessarily or to irritate this new area of growth or existing compromised tissue.
Many local treatments of cuts, wounds, burns and the like require some kind of pharmaceutical agent to be applied on the damaged site, prior to the application of a wound dressing. The advantages gained by local therapy include high concentrations of the drug at the actual site of injury. However, since in these treatments the medication is dispensed over an open wound, the wound dressing need to be stripped off before treating the wound.
Frequently, with prior art dressings, problems can occur during dressing changes, e.g. when the dressing adheres to the epithelium. In these instances, there is a risk that removal of the dressing will damage the sensitive tissue and new growth, thereby causing a regression in the progress of wound healing.
Considering the various types of wounds, the numerous dressings that are presently available, and the various stages of healing, there remains a need for a substantially sterile dressing that minimizes damages to the injured site, both during the application and during the removal of the dressings.
The present invention provides solutions to the problems associated with prior art wound dressing techniques.